In this video, Clint Loveall and Michael Gewecke continue their discussion of the Gospel of Luke, focusing on the passage of Luke 19:28-40. They explore the significance of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, often referred to as Palm Sunday, and the themes of peace and humility in this event. They also delve into the reactions of the Pharisees and the divided responses to Jesus as the Messiah. Join them as they provide insights and reflections on this powerful biblical passage.
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Transcript
00:00:00:36 – 00:00:24:56
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Thanks for joining us. If you’re in the local area, stay warm and good luck with snow as we seem to have it coming down. But regardless of where you’re joining us from or when you’re joining us. Glad you’re here as we continue through the gospel of Luke. Tough, tough story. Yesterday, one of the more difficult parables, Luke’s version particularly difficult.
00:00:25:01 – 00:00:54:50
Clint Loveall
And in contrast to our text today, and we said yesterday that Luke, we think does this on purpose. So I believe this is intentional. This is a familiar story. Jesus goes into Jerusalem. What we often call Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter. Luke’s going to spend a fair amount of time working on Holy Week, but this is the start of it as Jesus now approaches the city.
00:00:54:50 – 00:01:17:03
Clint Loveall
So I’ll read this is going to be familiar to you, but we’ll go ahead and go through it and then we’ll come back to talk about it. After he said this, he went ahead going up to Jerusalem when he come near Bethpage to Bethany at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent to disciples saying to them, Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter you’ll find tied there a colt that’s never been ridden.
00:01:17:07 – 00:01:50:11
Clint Loveall
Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you what are you? Why are you on tying it? Just say the Lord needs it. So those who were sent departed found it as it was told them and they were untangled. The owners asked, Why are you untying the coal? They said, The Lord needs it. Then they brought it to Jesus and after throwing their cloaks on the court, they set Jesus on it as he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road as he was now approaching the path down the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of disciples began to praise God joyfully, with a loud voice for all the deeds of power
00:01:50:11 – 00:02:16:46
Clint Loveall
that they had seen, saying Blessed is the king comes in the name of the Lord, Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven. Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, Teacher, order your disciples to stop. He answered, I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out the sometimes called the triumphal entry or the Palm Sunday text.
00:02:16:51 – 00:03:06:39
Clint Loveall
Luke downplayed maybe the idea of parade, even to the point of saying that it was the disciples who began to praise in the other disciple, in the other versions. There is this sort of insinuation that there’s multitude and crowds. Clearly there’s a number of people here involved in this. An interesting story, both in the way that it set up the idea that there’s a cult that is tied and Jesus has kind of supernatural knowledge of it since the disciples, even with an answer when they’re challenged and and then the simplicity of Jesus riding a colt, a donkey into the city, as as we know from history, there were these processions where kings or conquering military
00:03:06:39 – 00:03:38:10
Clint Loveall
people entered cities in parades with fanfare, with music and with party. And this is that, but scaled down at the most humble level. And it’s it’s really interesting, I think, Michael, that all of the gospels agree that there was a moment of public recognition. But in the big picture, it’s relatively humble, it’s relatively minor.
00:03:38:15 – 00:04:06:52
Michael Gewecke
This makes the triumphal entry such an important and interesting story because throughout history we know so well of the men who have reached for power, who have done so politically and also religiously, and they’ve made big shows, they have tried to get themselves in front of the people and, you know, use a silver tongue and garner sort of public praise and approval.
00:04:07:04 – 00:04:39:36
Michael Gewecke
What makes Jesus of Nazareth such a a striking individual is his nuanced account in the scriptures, the Gospel writers make it clear to us that Jesus is the very one who proclaims grace and peace and forgiveness, and simultaneously He will engage in substantial, even sometimes vicious debate. You’ll give examples that, just as we had yesterday, can be very disconcerting to us as modern readers and Jesus when he goes into Jerusalem, is all at once fulfilling all of these Old Testament prophecies.
00:04:39:36 – 00:04:57:12
Michael Gewecke
And Luke doesn’t emphasize prophecies in the way that Matthew does, but we have legitimate references to some of those Old Testament prophecies. The idea of being hailed as a king, the idea of going through the Mount of Olives. I mean, these things are laid out by the prophets in the Old Testament, Luke is showing us Jesus is fulfilling them.
00:04:57:12 – 00:05:24:47
Michael Gewecke
But not only is Jesus fulfilling these prophecies, Jesus is also demonstrating by coming in toward Jerusalem what the New Kingdom looks like. The New Kingdom looks like someone who enters on an animal or an instrument of humility. Jesus is the one who, when he comes to speak with power in just a few short paragraphs, it’s not going to be long.
00:05:24:52 – 00:05:55:21
Michael Gewecke
Jesus is going to do so, having entered with a very simple and humble, kingly power. And that’s the thing that Luke is showing us that that unlike other people who grasp for power, Jesus doesn’t need to grasp because he is that power he already has. It doesn’t need to be conferred to him or he doesn’t need to take it from any one else, or he doesn’t need to convince anyone else that he should be the one that they look to as someone with power.
00:05:55:31 – 00:06:06:47
Michael Gewecke
Jesus is the Son of God. He is master, He is king. And so his arrival is itself kingly, even if it doesn’t have the trappings that you would expect in the first century.
00:06:06:52 – 00:06:47:35
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And the other the other part of that, I think is it’s interesting, the part that the people play, you know, so they the disciples go get the coat and they put a cloak on it. Then it says people spread their cloaks on the road. Interestingly enough, for a Palm Sunday text, Luke gives us no mention of palms, and then they begin to sing and praise God and that one of the powerful pieces of the story is that the verse here, right there in 38, Blessed is the King who comes in the name of Lord in Ancient Israel or the ancient Israel of Jesus Day.
00:06:47:40 – 00:07:27:52
Clint Loveall
What they remembered is that this was a song that was sung as Kings of Israel would make their way into Jerusalem. And so when the Pharisees hear this, this is a kind of messianic psalm, psalm or song. At this point in history, it’s served to announce kings in ancient Israel, and now it is the it is the idea of looking forward to the coming of the new king and either on theological or practical grounds, the Pharisees want to put a stop to it theologically.
00:07:27:52 – 00:07:54:37
Clint Loveall
It could be that they’re upset that this is essentially proclaiming Jesus as a king. Practically. They could be worried that this kind of attention called upon them by the Romans. Would would be bad. It would end not well for people if the Roman government hears a song lifting up a person as king, that that could lead to punishment.
00:07:54:37 – 00:08:22:57
Clint Loveall
It could lead to people being killed or or punished, abused. And so they tell Jesus, stop. And Luke is the only one that gives us this detail. And it’s kind of my favorite of the Palm Sunday stories. It is kind of my favorite little addition, Jesus answered. I tell you, if the if these are the stones, if these the disciples were silent, the Stones would shout out.
00:08:23:02 – 00:08:56:09
Clint Loveall
And we’ve taken that in the church to mean that this is a moment for praise, that there’s an obviousness to this moment. And if the people didn’t get it, then creation itself would proclaim that it cannot be silenced. This this moment of the entry of the Messiah into the holy city of Israel cannot be missed. And if the people won’t proclaim it, then the creation itself, even the stones themselves would cry out, would proclaim it.
00:08:56:09 – 00:09:05:42
Clint Loveall
And I think it’s just a it’s just a wonderful little twist, just a little devotional nugget that Luke adds that I’ve always thought is really nice.
00:09:05:47 – 00:09:35:22
Michael Gewecke
So, Clint, one of the struggles when you read a gospel over such a long period of time is to catch some of those long themes that have been woven throughout the whole thing. And I think it’s worth pointing out how important this theme of peace is. In particular, we’ve seen this in Luke over and over again. Here we see it at the end of 38 in The Voice of these crying out in song, Peace in heaven, glory in the highest heaven.
00:09:35:22 – 00:10:03:31
Michael Gewecke
And that should remind us all the way back to the beginning of this book, chapter two, The Book of Luke. When the peace is being declared over the birth of this Son of God, and then it appears numerous times throughout the book from there and in some interesting ways, we see peace popping up in the idea of light, peace in the Jesus coming into two cities.
00:10:03:36 – 00:10:26:24
Michael Gewecke
We see peace in the idea of where Jesus says, I’ve come not to bring peace, but to divide family against each other. I think a symbol of peace in this story, which is striking because the very moment in which these are singing out peace in heaven, glory to God the highest. It’s at that very moment that the machinations of Jesus’s death are already beginning to roll.
00:10:26:24 – 00:10:50:56
Michael Gewecke
The Pharisees are already providing a kind of looking ahead to how this story is going to end so that the peace that Jesus Christ brings with him is a very tumultuous kind of peace. It’s not just everyone’s happy and sits in a circle and sings Kumbaya. And my point in all of this is to say that in Luke, I think this theme of peace works its way throughout the book.
00:10:50:56 – 00:11:13:06
Michael Gewecke
And it is nuanced and it’s complicated. It doesn’t mean that everything’s always simple and that life always gives you the ace of spades. It’s rather that Jesus Christ, when he shows up and his presence, his faithfulness, this provides a kind of constancy and trust, a kind of peace that we might not even be able to see, a kingdom that we might not be able to see.
00:11:13:06 – 00:11:38:40
Michael Gewecke
And that, I think, is a powerful kind of revelation happening in a text like this, that that Jesus, especially to that first generation of disciples that didn’t experience a lot of worldly peace, that Jesus could show up and he could be the author of peace, even in the midst of very dissension, going make up a word, dissension, less times divisive times.
00:11:38:45 – 00:11:48:29
Michael Gewecke
And I think that that that remains good news for disciples today, that peace can live a nuanced, complicated, strong peace, even in the midst of difficulty.
00:11:48:34 – 00:12:25:55
Clint Loveall
Yeah, not to jump ahead, but along those lines, when we get to the first appearance Jesus makes as the resurrected Christ, the first words he says to the gathered disciples are Is peace be with you. That is the thing that Jesus both creates proclaims, and that believers in Jesus look to is the idea that the peace of God will one day not only be an internal reality, but an external one, a peace that will come upon the world because of what Jesus has done in ushering in the kingdom.
00:12:25:55 – 00:12:46:28
Clint Loveall
So in some ways, Luke’s version of the triumphal entry is perhaps the simplest, but in other ways very nuanced. Lots of depth. And I think it gives us some places to attach ourselves to the text and some things to think about.
00:12:46:33 – 00:13:16:13
Michael Gewecke
My commentary makes note, and I find this really interesting that verse 39, some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, Teacher, whether you’re disciples to start the commentary points out, it’s the last time in Luke we’re going to see the Pharisees and I think that’s really striking, just to be really brief. You know, the Pharisees were a group within the Israelite religious order that was trying to localize the faith, try and make it clear that that our faith has moral demands.
00:13:16:13 – 00:13:37:45
Michael Gewecke
We need to live as people of the faith and the Pharisees tended to do that work in synagogues all across Israel. They they sort of moved the religion away from the center of the temple, not not in its complete essence, But they moved it to the local communities where people could gather and they could practice the the call and the ethic of faith.
00:13:37:49 – 00:14:06:30
Michael Gewecke
It’s striking now as Jesus is coming in to Jerusalem, how in some ways he’s leaving behind these debates and he’s leaving behind this conflict with these Pharisees that he’s been sort of rising in in this time. And now that he comes to Jerusalem, to the temple, that the center of Israelite life, the very city of David, that it’s in this place where now the conflict is going to arise from moral teachings.
00:14:06:30 – 00:14:35:49
Michael Gewecke
And what is Jesus saying is that blasphemous or not, now the conversation is going to rise above that to the level of the highest rulers of the land. The Kingdom of God proclaimed by Jesus, is now going to come in direct contradiction and conflict with the true kingdom of the world. And we’re going to watch as those kingdoms don’t really mix and we’re going to see what happens in the conflict between them and Luke.
00:14:35:54 – 00:14:55:49
Michael Gewecke
I’m not going to spoil it, but Luke has ways of building into this conflict that is now beginning in Jerusalem. In some powerful ways. He’s going to leave us at some junctures of the story, amazed to see how God’s kingdom winds out over the world. The kingdom, We begin to see those transitions happening here in the text.
00:14:55:49 – 00:15:20:53
Clint Loveall
Well, I think even I think even in this text, we see that division, Michael. I mean, from a devotional standpoint, this text delivers us to a place of asking, as you consider Jesus, as king, are you one that proclaims blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord? Are you or are you one of the those that are silent, afraid, offended?
00:15:20:58 – 00:15:45:45
Clint Loveall
Which side do you take in this parade that Jesus is? I think what we will see increasingly in the rest of the Luke narrative is that Jesus is a divisive figure in these in this final episode of his of his life, in his ministry. There is a division that happens, and I think even we see it foreshadowed in this text.
00:15:45:50 – 00:16:07:53
Clint Loveall
Are you one that’s singing or are you one that isn’t? Do you recognize what’s happening in the Risen or in the Christ coming as the Messiah? Even though it doesn’t look like a parade, it looks like a guy on a colt. Do you see the reality of that or do you not? And I think Luke’s going to ask us that question in multiple ways as we finish this book.
00:16:07:53 – 00:16:34:09
Michael Gewecke
I’ll be really brief on that, but we might make the mistake of thinking that the Pharisees were looking for the wrong thing, when in reality the Pharisees were maybe the most devoted people looking for the Messiah. They were passionate about finding the Messiah. And what’s interesting is in this story, the Pharisees couldn’t see anything but their fear of what might happen.
00:16:34:13 – 00:17:01:32
Michael Gewecke
They were fixated on who they considered to be the enemy Rome the powerful elites in the city. Regardless of what we’ve identified in our own time or place as individuals, as that threat, it too threatens to keep our vision from seeing the humble Christ on the dock. I mean, I do think there’s a there’s a very present kind of invitation in this text that the Messiah will show up.
00:17:01:37 – 00:17:19:15
Michael Gewecke
And many of the people who have been looking for him will miss him because it will be different than what we imagined, because it will be a response to forces that we we were fixated on in the wrong ways. And I just think as Christians, this teaches us a kind of humility, a kind of openness. Lord, God, help me.
00:17:19:15 – 00:17:37:15
Michael Gewecke
See, I may already believe that I understand a thing, but help me see what that with a childlike face what you might be doing. Because I don’t want to miss it for assumptions I’ve made that, you know, that’s not the whole point of this text, not even the majority point of this text. But we may have something to learn about that from this text.
00:17:37:30 – 00:17:50:10
Clint Loveall
Yeah, Yeah, certainly so. And hope there’s been something that’s spoken to you, whatever that might be. Hope there’s something you’ve learned and that it’s been helpful. We appreciate you joining us. And if you can make it tomorrow, we hope to see you again.
00:17:50:15 – 00:17:51:40
Michael Gewecke
Monday.
00:17:51:45 – 00:17:54:31
Clint Loveall
Monday, sorry, Monday. Today’s Thursday.
00:17:54:35 – 00:17:54:57
Michael Gewecke
See you then.